Reducing Embodied Carbon in Cities: Nine Solutions for Greener Buildings and Communities

Despite widespread efforts to curb emissions in the buildings and construction sector, the gap is widening between climate performance and the necessary pathway to decarbonization.3 In addition to reducing the carbon emissions from day-to-day building operations, limiting a building’s embodied carbon, which includes the carbon emissions associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole life cycle of a building, from material extraction to end of life, plays a significant yet often understated role on the path to net zero.4 This paper identifies common challenges cities face in the effort to reduce embodied carbon emissions from the built environment and offers innovative solutions and case studies that address those challenges and provide inspiration for both industry and municipalities to advance their embodied carbon reduction goals. To reduce embodied carbon emissions within the built environment, challenges in the planning, sourcing, construction and end-of-life processes must be addressed. First, a lack of comprehensive regulations and policy frameworks leads to inconsistent outcomes within jurisdictions and among regions. Additionally, the lack of standardized approaches results in fragmentation across construction and real estate, as well as in the energy, transportation and waste sectors, and presents challenges to the widespread adoption and implementation of tried-and-tested low-carbon solutions and innovative approaches. This report presents nine cross-sector solutions organized into three themes aimed at curbing embodied carbon in cities: (1) adopting enabling policy frameworks, regulations and incentives; (2) strengthening the low embodied carbon ecosystem; and (3) spurring innovation in clean construction.

Adopting enabling policy frameworks, regulations and incentives
Under this theme, solutions occur at varying levels of policy intervention and advocate for standardized regulatory frameworks to signal a market response and position cities as global sustainability leaders.
– Requirements for low-carbon materials (solution one): requiring the integration of low-carbon concrete in new construction and encouraging the responsible use of materials. Value-chain transparency and environmental product declarations (EPDs) are key components.
– Mandates for whole-life carbon assessments (solution two): enacting requirements to regulate embodied carbon in construction projects, promoting sustainability through standardized methodologies and data compilation, and providing technical tools and support. Included in this solution area is consideration for expedited approvals and permitting to create incentives for low-carbon projects.
– Executive orders for clean construction (solution three): demonstrating the pivotal role of city governments in requiring city agencies to adopt clean construction practices and lead by example in driving the adoption of low-carbon practices within the construction sector. This includes environmental preferable purchasing (EPP) or green procurement and may extend to using low-carbon equipment in construction.

Strengthening the low embodied carbon ecosystem
Solutions under this theme bridge the built environment, transport and energy sectors and take a holistic approach to reducing embodied carbon in cities. Solutions could be deployed independently or collectively to create a low embodied carbon ecosystem; they require cross-sector collaboration and present an opportunity to influence broader outcomes for quality of life, including resilience, health and affordability.
– Large-scale adaptive reuse (solution four): championing the reuse of existing assets over building new, including material repurposing, contributing to circularity and carbon reduction goals as well as economic and community revitalization.
– Citywide circular economy strategy (solution f ive): creating a framework for resource efficiency, minimizing waste, introducing incentivizes for reuse and promoting sustainable economic development.
– Programmes to electrify heavy transport and machinery (solution six): collaborating with governments and industries to create incentives for electrified fleets and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure to decarbonize the transport of goods to construction sites and electrify construction machinery.

source :

https://www.weforum.org/publications/paving-the-way-for-embodied-carbon-reduction-nine-solutions-for-cities-and-industry